At the present time most landing areas for aerostats and aerodynes that take off vertically or land in small areas, for example helicopters and autogiros, have certain features in common: they require space, that is, a minimum amount of surface; they are fixed and all of one piece; they rest on a plane solid surface; and they are used only as a landing area and are not adaptable for other purposes.
Given these restrictions, the landing areas can only be constructed in suitable locations, limiting both the number of landing areas and of users.
Various solutions have been proposed over time, but generally they are responsive to only one specific need. For example, various landing areas exist for landing on special terrain. Thus, PCT Application No. WO 96/23691 divulges a landing area for landing on water, and Patent No. FR 22 687 886 divulges a landing area for loose soil. Similarly, there have been solutions proposed regarding the design of landing areas. For instance, Patent No. FR 2 792 955 and Patent No. EP 0 648 898 divulge temporary dismountable landing areas, while Patent No. FR 2 636 915 divulges a transportable landing area, PCT Application No. WO 92/12894 divulges an extendible landing area and Patent Nos. EP 0 030 849 and No. EP 0 497 646 divulge a method for positioning and sheltering an aerodyne in a closed container. The solutions divulged in these documents generally respond only to one aspect of the problem, while permitting the landing area to be used for only one purpose.
European Patent Application No. EP 0030849 of ISRAEL AIRCRAFT divulges a landing structure and hangar for an air vehicle, for example, a helicopter. This structure, which may be placed on the deck of a ship, has an enclosure with a frame, lateral walls, and a plurality of panels supported on the tops of the lateral walls which slide horizontally into a retracted interior position to close the enclosure or into an external deployed position to open the enclosure and extend laterally beyond the lateral walls. There is an elevator platform that moves vertically between a lower position inside the enclosure and an upper position that is horizontally aligned with the plane of the panels. When the elevator platform is in the upper position, it constitutes, together with certain panels which are in the extreme deployed position, an expanded landing area for a helicopter landing or takeoff; and when the elevator platform is in the interior retracted position it serves to shelter the landed helicopter inside the enclosure, with the panels sliding into their interior position to close the enclosure and forming a smaller landing area for another helicopter, if necessary. Nevertheless, this structure is especially cumbersome, not removable, and it is in no way designed to be completely housed in a protective device.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,152,547 of HOVLAND VIDAR describes a motion compensation system for a helicopter platform on a ship. A controller communicates with an angle detector and regulates at least one actuator, maintaining the angle of the platform essentially constant for the helicopter in order to compensate for the motion of the ship.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,883,241 of SNEAD EDWIN divulges a helicopter platform for use on trains. This platform comprises a flat surface with an area adapted to receive the landing skids or runners of a helicopter and a plurality of structural elements connected to the flat surface and to the chassis of a railway car. An extendible portion of this flat surface can be selectively activated to increase the total area of the flat surface. However, this structure is very cumbersome, not removable, and is in no way designed be completely housed in a protective device.